Today was an odd day to be a medusa, or even just a part of one. Elia was in the backseat, a small recess in her mind, riding the body of a hair-snake. She was not used to existence in the shape of a noodle, or being in the backseat. Even when Rye had taken control of their body, she had mostly been unconscious. It had always unnerved her, watching someone else pilot her own limbs, watching her hands zip and hack and slash on their own, as if her body was a robot and it was running on a foreign program.

What was equally terrifying was the view. Gone was the pitch black of forgotten tunnels, gone was the need to guess when the next tile would stub her toe. Every dead thing was shaded in hues of purple and blue, and everything else practically screamed at her in deep oranges and reds.

Thermal vision, Mind-Elia said, as a splatter of neon colors splashed against the wall and ceiling. Possibly a hint of ultraviolet, as we can see all those handprints. How curious.

“Fuckin’ awesome is what it is.” Elia watched Body-Elia disarm one of the cave-creatures, then split it head to groin. “You can’t touch me ‘cause I got upgrades, baby, upgrades!”

You have gained: Soul x255

You have gained: Soul x305

You have gained: Soul x178

Elia sighed, mentally rubbing her forehead as her vision was yanked left and right.

So disorienting, she thought.

Right? Mind-Elia thought right back. I am glad you agree, miss OG. Now you are aware of what it is like to be in our shoes. Your shoes.

Elia looked at her. A small snake stared back, with yellow eyes and a boopable snout. Valti’s boon had come with many changes, chief of which was that her hair was now a pile of snakes. Elia was sure she had more frog-affinity. Why wasn’t it a pile of frogs? Now Quibbles would forever be afraid that one of her dreads would glomp him whenever she went in for cuddles.

Ribbit.

Hm? Did you say something, OG?

Elia tucked in her snake head slash body slash neck. No original girls here. Just us toads. Ribbit.

Okaaay… well, if that’s all you’re going to do, I look forward to sharing a headspace with you. Miss Body constantly prods me when I’m bored, but now that she is occupied, I finally have time to ponder and think.

Maybe she should do that as well, now that she had the time and Body was busy bodying every living creature south of the surface. A near miss or a stab came her way every now and again, but she was surrounded by a dozen angry, hissing snakes. They would protect her if it came down to it, and their warmth was pleasant, more than it should have been.

They were cold-blooded now. She only hoped that Body-Elia remembered that.

Suddenly, a hulking creature crawled out from a tent, covered in layers and layers of untreated leather judging by its cooler skin. It walked like a mixture between a dog and a person and when it raised itself on its hind legs, two daggers long as swords gleamed in its hands.

Body Elia twisted unnaturally, performing some feat Elia had never seen before.

You have been challenged by: Wretch Ch–

Ascender slain

You have gained: Soul x7,500

“Haha yes, die, trash!”

At least our body is in good hands, she muttered to herself.

“Of course it is, always has been. Back in the maze, who do you think took the reigns when you decided you didn’t care if you lived or died, hm?”

What? Elia furrowed her brows, which was much more difficult as a snake. That is… are you saying that you are my haze?

“Always have been.”

But, that means you’ve always been a part of me. I had those bouts of violent fugues since, well, ages ago.

Body-Elia stopped, grabbed an enemy by the throat and crushed it with a single hand. “No. You are me, I am the Elia. Now lean back and enjoy the show. You prayed for this, didn’t you?”

Elia grumbled. But there was a loose thread she could follow. A few weeks into this hellish maze was all it took for old cracks to reappear. It was too similar to the maze. Now that Elia knew what a halfway normal life had to offer, she dreaded nothing more than going back. A break should have had her sighing in relief. She should have been happy.

But here she was, one unsatisfied snake in a knot. Was she mad that she was not in full control? Or was she more mad at the fact that Body-Elia seemed to be better than her at the one thing she prided herself in?

An orange smudge of a face fell towards them, an ambush from above. Her other sister snakes had already coiled up, ready to surge forward. Elia could feel their desire to bite, and hers as well. Body-Elia sidestepped it at the last moment, a dull shortsword drawing a line across her protective scales as every snake bit the creature on the way down.

Feeling her jaw distend nearly 180 degrees and her teeth jut forward to sink into deceptively soft meat was probably the weirdest part of this entire experience so far. It felt good and right, probably because Elia was in the head of a snake and was thinking very snake-y thoughts. She smacked her lips at the salty blood.

Yum.

Mind-Elia may have been smarter than her, and Body-Elia more skillful, but she could not be replaced. No matter who was in control, they didn’t have eyes on the top of their head.

That was certainly something. Tastes like fish.

“Wohooo! Let me bathe in your blood, let me feel alive!”

Maybe being a snake wasn’t so bad.

I wonder if I’m venomous.

***

It turns out, Elia was incredibly venomous. One bite was enough to have a creature thrice her entire body’s size on the floor, foaming at the mouth within seconds.

Envenoming people was also incredibly exhausting. Two or maybe three good bites was all she had in her. Now, she was feeling sleepy as heck. Most of the other snakes were already coiled up protectively as they tried to sleep and regain some of their reserves. But without food or bowl water, the prospects were looking slim.

Why are you slowing down? Elia asked as Body-Elia hurled herself out of the way of a strike she should have seen coming a second earlier.

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“I-it’s not m-my fault,” she chittered. “C-cold. Everything is sooo…”

She made a puff of smoke and fire. But the soothing heat was lost in seconds, replaced by the ever present damp and clingy underground air.

Maybe you should take a break? Find a safe space to sleep it off? I can keep watch.

Actually, Mind-Elia chimed in, since we are officially ectotherms, we need to find external ways to regulate our body temperature. All this exercise has been staving off the inevitable, namely that we will, without a source of heat, grow sluggish under prevailing conditions. Bathing in the blood of our enemies might have felt good in the moment, but in the long term, the water in the blood evaporating saps our heat and turns us sluggish.

“Uuuugh,” Body-Elia groaned. “I d-don’t want to become a slug. How d-do I fix this?”

Well, normally, you could bask in the sun to raise your body temperature, and sit in the shade to cool off.

Elia gave her compatriot snake a stare.

There is no sun here in case you haven’t noticed.

Mind-Elia flicked her tongue at her.

Then, I don’t know, find a geothermal vent? Now stop bothering me, I’ve almost cracked the code on what Valti wants of us.

Elia shrugged, which was an odd thing to do for a snake without shoulders.

We’ll find out when we reach her.

I’d rather know beforehand, so we can plan around it. Honestly, I am surprised that you survived this long without us.

I don’t sweat the details.

Details are important! Maybe if you had bothered to look into who exactly who Frey was, who Rhuna was, you could have been prepared, and maybe Otis wouldn’t be dead and Rye wouldn’t be–

“H-hey girls, I think I am going to take you up on that offer for a nap. Let m-me just step into this boat.”

Boat? Both snake-Elia’s said simultaneously.

Their answer came in the form of sloshing and the sound of wood scraping along the stone. There was an underground lake here, apparently, and a few canoes filled with tools needed for fishing. Lakes implied rivers, or at least some spot where the water could flow through. Maybe that was their way out, though Elia’s mind was still thoroughly moored to the shore. If there were any of those creatures left, they could have easily pelted her with rocks and javelins. But Body-Elia had been nothing if not thorough.

Sooo, I get that we should be safer in the water than on land from those nasty critters, but what is your plan here?

“D-dunno. G-go sleep. Wake up better. T-then keep on moving.” She sighed and with a shiver wrapped herself in the remnants of her armor. “Row, row, row your boat…”

And then she was out, leaving only Elia, and a ponderous other piece of herself. She closed her eyes, feeling the iron grip of Body-Elia waning.

She didn’t even think that sleeping means one of us could easily take her body, Elia thought.

Don’t. Our body needs rest as much as our Body. We all do, but alas, it is up to the adults to keep people like her out of trouble.

Elia hummed. The other snakes were snoozing as well. She would have taken this time to explore herself, if there were much to explore. But she didn’t have the opportunity, nor the need, or even the desire to. The boat dimpled gently on. A break like this was nice, once in a while. If only it weren’t for the existential dread.

I don’t know if I can be a snake forever, Elia thought.

Then don’t be.

She grumbled.

Hey Mind, what’s the purpose of life?

The answer came surprisingly quickly.

Whatever you make it out to be. That includes whether you find it yourself, or have one forced upon you. I for one discovered that, when confronted with a hostile and unfamiliar world, I had to mature quickly, do away with unimportant influences like pain or tiredness or severe depression. I found that I needed to be like a scalpel, and cut to the heart of matters. It is to my great dismay that you never seemed to have anything but a passing interest in questioning deeper, such as why the world is as it is.

You sound like you think you were a part of me, not the other way around.

I… after due consideration of my memories, I have come to the conclusion that If there is an original, or ‘true’ us, it is unlikely to be Mind-Elia.

Huh. I’ve never been called stupid like that before.

The other snake laughed at her, which sounded like hisses mixed with hiccups.

But, Elia continued, how can you be sure? We’ve only got a sample size of three. That cannot be statistically relevant. And besides, don’t you think that relying purely on miss rip and tear is going to catch up to us?

You’re saying… oh. Oh, you cannot be thinking–

With a mischievous grin, Elia booped another snake with her nose and activated [Psychometry]. For a moment, the snake quietly snoozed along. Then, its eyes tore open, and it shot up like a distressed meerkat.

What? Who’s there? Why is everything purple? Sounds, water everywhere. We could drown in the water, dead forever. Dead!

You can use boons as a snake? Mind-Elia flicked her tongue in thought. I… I should have guessed as much.

Elia was about to reply when the new Elia coiled herself around her body and whispered into her ear.

It’s in the wind. Water. Something large, something terrible. It’s coming. It’s coming.

You’re choking me… ack!

How ominous. Could you, perchance, elaborate?

That was when they heard it. One after another, the three snakes perked up. It was hard to tell by sight, but they had been slowly drifting out onto the lake. No one had been rowing. In the distance, the sound of rushing water crept ever closer.

Is that a waterfall? Elia yelled. Why didn’t you say so?

Why don’t YOU listen, to your eyes, your ears? Fools, I am surrounded by incompetents!

Hmm, yes, this could definitely be a problem.

We have to wake Body-Elia up. Elia looked around. Let’s bite her.

You fool! We’re venomous. Just… kick her out, or something.

Elia squinted, looking for a mental hold. An arm flopped around, but the moment she felt like she had an in, it felt like a bunch of other strings were pulling in different directions.

We are going to drown, we are going to drown, we are…

Stop, it, stop – I’m already using that hand!

Not everyone at once! Order, please, teamwork!

“Wuh?” Body-Elia unwrapped herself from the tarp she’d been using like a blanket. “Shiiit – what time is it?”

Move! They all yelled in unison, but it was too late. The rush of the rapids was deafening.

They didn’t fall, at first. The boat lurched and lingered as it was pushed nose-first into an eddy, then nearly toppled when they failed to align its nose to the rushing cavalcade of water. It shook them as it crashed into walls, and rocks scraped along the spine until one broke through. From there, it was a massacre of splintered wood, and too low ceilings.

No one knew where they were going. To Body-Elia’s credit, even in the cold dark, she did not fall off their half of the boat, in part thanks to their increased finesse. For a while, as they reached a calmer part of the tunnel, Elia thought they had just gotten lucky.

But in the end, there was a waterfall, and they did fall off, swallowed by the depths beneath the dark.

***

All water that flows must one day reach the sea. All water in the sea must evaporate, and one day reach the tallest mountain tops.

This was the one piece of wisdom that the lone figure standing at the lake knew to be true. It was the one thing they could not take from him, after they had taken his home, his students, and all but a sliver of light that fell in through a crack high up in the ceiling.

It was enough to read by, and barely enough to write. If only the air wasn’t so humid and moldy, he could have used vellum instead of chalkstone. Then he would have finished his work centuries ago. Technically, he was, but there weren’t enough copies, and this knowledge was the kind that begged to be destroyed by the powers that be.

Wearily, he raised his dull chisel, when he noticed a shape dimpling in the water.

Another wretch from above? I ought to dispose of it, before the beast catches its smell.

But as he drew closer, he saw the sheen of green scales, and limbs carved like an athlete’s. The smell of death wafted over as he hobbled through the frigid water and examined it from up close. It was a her, with hair like snakes, a mouth filled with razors, and slitted yellow eyes on a red sclera.

Beautiful.

When he pulled her hairline back at the neck, pushing in some barely used reservoir to look for any sign of an oath of ownership over the creature, he simply found a circle stricken through with a dagger. A bounty mark. It was for nearly twenty times ten times a thousand souls. It was odd, since the number was way out of proportion and the gods were never known to be this generous. She must have done a great many evils to reach such a number, but that answer was equally as unsatisfying.

The gods were afraid of this one.

“A corpse,” he mused. “What an odd offering I have been given.”